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Steve Cohen Digs Roku, Buys 5%

The billionaire's fund, Point72 Asset Management made the investment. A 2016 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed the money manager to accept outside money starting this past January.

Shares of Roku Inc. (ROKU) shot up late Monday about 5% after billionaire Steve Cohen's fund, Point72 Asset Management LP, took a passive 5.1% stake in the streaming video and audio player technology company.

Cohen's investment is just the latest following a surprising, possibly shocking return for the investment manager after an insider-trading scandal in 2013 took apart his otherwise incredibly successful hedge fund.

A 2016 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed the beleaguered money-manager to accept outside money starting this past January.

Cohen doesn't typically launch activist campaigns and his passive investment filing, a schedule 13G, suggests that he has no plans to do so any time soon. In addition, it is unlikely Cohen or an activist could target Roku's board of directors if they wanted to because its 2017 IPO reportedly gave 98% of its voting share power to executives, directors and other insiders. Roku CEO Anthony Wood controls a substantial chunk of the voting power of Roku shares himself. The company has two classes of shares. Class A shares, which Cohen acquired, come with one vote per share. Class B shares, offered up to insiders and early investors, come with 10 votes per share.

Roku, based in Los Gatos, Calif., has a $3.29 billion market capitalization.

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